Show us how you get the old group back together! Phil went on a trip and did some game prep for a very unique and specific circumstance, and we’re going to talk about it. Welcome to the Polygamerous Podcast Network! Misdirected Mark is officially becoming the PGN. You can read more here: https://polygamero.us/misdirected-mark-productions-is-becomin…

Show us how you run or play a game when you’ve only dabbled in a particular IP! Phil and Senda talk being the GM or being a player when you’re not the expert in something like Star Wars, Marvel, or Lord of the Rings. Welcome to the Polygamerous Podcast Network! Misdirected Mark is officially becoming the PGN. You can read more here: https://polygam…

Hey friends! We ran into a crunch and needed to turn out a lower stakes episode this week, so here we present to you (drum roll please!) a chit chat! If this is your first time listening, you may wish to go back or forward an episode to hear our normal show style. In this chit chat, we talk giving us life in gaming and lessons you might be able to …

Show us how much of a game you can replace before you may as well write your own! Senda and Phil chat about the Ship of Theseus syndrome of games (if you replace all the parts, is it still the same game?) as well as when it might make sense to write your own game and when it wouldn’t (most of the time, in our opinion). Link! Senda’s per page readin…

Show us how you get emotional investment in one shots and the beginnings of campaigns! Phil and Senda talk player and GM responsibilities and faking it til you make it, along with some other ideas to get you started. Link! Senda’s per page fundraising for the Trans Rights Read-a-thon can be found here: https://go.rallyup.com/trr2024senda Bamboo Lou…

Show us how you handle conditions and agency! Character agency vs. player agency — is there a difference? Phil and Senda talk agency and conditions, and when conditions have the potential to infringe on player agency. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic o…

Who’s an NPC? How can we categorize them? Let’s talk non-player characters (and the sometimes spectrum)! Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic on our shiny new linktree: http://misdirectedmark.com/panda저자 Senda Linaugh and Phil Vecchione

Show us how you run a game when you are less than enthusiastic about it…maybe? Phil and Senda talk running games as a gift or favor for folks (when you are not a professional GM), how to get onboard or find a way to be onboard, and when it’s maybe not worth it. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. …

Show us how you breathe life into your setting at the table! How do you make a setting feel alive, engaging, and evocative? Phil and Senda discuss in this off the cuff episode. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic on our shiny new linktree: http://misdirec…

Show us how you make an encounter (in whatever context) challenging without being *too* challenging! Phil and Senda talk GM knowledge vs. NPC knowledge, planning challenges and encounters, and not nerfing your players special powers on the reg. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the in…

Show us how you introduce a new setting to players! Phil and Senda talk setting considerations, ways to do setting introductions without turning on the firehose, and recommendations for getting folks up to speed quickly. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topi…

Show us your gaming plans for 2024! We’re taking the gentle on ramp after our holiday and talking about some of our aspirations for the new year, both gaming and personally. What are some of your gaming aspirations? Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic on …

Show us how you use leading questions in your games! Phil and Senda talk leading questions, as well as how and when to use them effectively. Unfortunately two thing happened this episode: 1. Phil’s mic started doing some very strange things. We were not able to save the bamboo lounge. 2. Phil hurt his back and was in pain as we got this recorded, s…

Show us what you’re grateful for in gaming this year! Phil and Senda record a quick episode before American Thanksgiving to tease apart some of the things we are really grateful for this year when it comes to our gaming lives. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us …

Show us how you….okay. Hang on a sec. [The screech of a soap box being dragged out from a closet] Real talk. There’s a lot of discourse currently occurring about bleed on a number of social media platforms. We don’t usually jump in on discourse (and have managed not to on social media directly) but we have THOUGHTS, dammit. We are not here to tear …

Show us how you slide some character beats into an action oriented game! Phil and Senda talk about the spectrum that is character driven games and action driven games, and how to push your slider a little more into the middle when the game you’re playing is intended to be action oriented. Also, hope y’all enjoyed Acadecon, we were super late on add…

Show us how you play more games! Phil and Senda….both had quite a few weeks there, but we’re happy to be on mics again, even if we kept it pretty short. This week, we talk about some ideas for getting more games to the table — a constant struggle for the polygamerous among us! If you have more ideas, let us know, because we need help with this too!…

No cliffhangers today! Phil and Senda talk about the second part of the question regarding GM brain and anxiety — some common GM anxieties and ideas about how to address them (besides just the old advice to practice). Are there other specific anxieties that haunt you at the table? Drop us a line! Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these …

Show us how you can use improv at the table to alleviate your recall anxiety! Phil and Senda talk improv and GM anxiety at the table, with a helping of other resources for practicing improv for gaming specifically. References: Improv for Gamers by Karen Twelves Episode 127 – Improve your Improv (yikes! That was a LONG time ago!) Perchance Never Unp…

We’re bringing it back! Way back before the pandemic, Phil and Senda were well on their way to kickstarting this game. We’ve just picked it back up again and we’re working hard! We were a little overworked to have our standard topic today, so we had a chit chat instead. If this is your first episode, you may wish to go forward or backwards on episo…

Show us how you manage being REALLY into your game when not everyone is! Phil and Senda talk about the disparity of time spent thinking about a game between player and GM, as well as more generally when you are more excited about something than the people you are around. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon…

Finishing up last week’s topic (barely!), we’re bringing it home by merging in the discussion of GM brain with GM style and GM supports. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic on our shiny new linktree: http://misdirectedmark.com/panda…

Show us how you find the right kind of game for your GM brain! Thanks to a comment about a quick aside from a few episodes ago where Senda mentioned in passing that her attachment to improv GMing has more to do with ADHD recall than with a lack of desire or ability to prep, we’re on the case. Phil and Senda take a stab at generalized categorization…

Show us how you set a scene to give it genre feel and manage pacing! Phil and Senda talk scene setting — pacing, description and set up, spotlight, and participants — for genre emulation and tone creation. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet or drop us a topic on our shiny …

Show us how you take your memorable or influential gaming experiences forward into your future games! Phil and Senda revisit last week’s topic to talk about exactly how we carried things forward from our games. We also talk about ways to categorize your experiences to help pinpoint specific things you want to bring with you to new games. Bamboo Lou…

Show us your memorable gaming moments! Phil and Senda answer a request to talk about memorable gaming moments. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames TikTok: PandasTalkGames Forums: http://forums.misdirectedmark.com and panda(at)misdirectedmark.com…

Show us how players can support a brand new GM! Phil and Senda talk through some of the responsibilities that the GM stereotypically takes on and how players can either assist or take over those responsibilities, especially when a new GM is getting their GMing legs under them or is intimidated by the number of things they have to manage. Bamboo Lou…

Show us how you queer up your game when it isn’t written that way! Phil and Senda talk queer themes (and a little personal history) and some of the ways our games get queerer. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames TikTok: PandasTalkGames Forums: htt…

Show us how you manage mid game changes to your game’s tone or content that are caused by out of game, real world stuff! This hasn’t actually happened to Phil or Senda — we’ve just switched games — but the question was asked and we live to answer your questions so we tackled this from the theoretical. As always, we’re fans of ~communication~! Bambo…

Iiiit’s a chit chat! Due to some *life,* we’re doing a chit chat today instead of our normal discussion episode style. Additionally, there will be no new episode next Wednesday, July 5, as we won’t be able to record this coming weekend. See you all July 12! On today’s chit chat, we talk prep time vs. play time and being a player as a GM who also ge…

Show us how you roll your dice — open, or closed — and show us how you uninvite people from your group! Phil and Senda answer two questions from J.T. Evans. How do you feel about rolling dice in the open vs. closed? How do you manage the emotional aspects of uninviting someone from your ongoing game? Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find th…

Show us how you use a GMPC! GMPCs get a bad wrap a lot, and for good reason. Phil and Senda talk when they’re actually pretty great and helpful, and the circumstances you might want to use them in. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http:…

Show us how you playtest! Phil and Senda talk playtesting (a discussion topic we received from multiple requests). We approach it based on an idealized version of how we’ve playtested games, but also in consideration of playtesting house rules. You can hear some of our older takes on playtesting in Episode 114 (crossover with BXP) and Episode 89. B…

It’s time…for a chit chat! If this is your first time listening, this is not our standard format. In a chit chat, we talk about things that are giving us life in gaming, and things that are giving us life outside of gaming. On today’s episode, we talk about getting into a new mission in our game of Long Live The Queen, solo journaling games, World …

Show us how you…answer multiple questions! Phil and Senda talk connecting published adventures to each other or to your homebrew, and clues in mysteries without railroading (and why mysteries can feel railroad-y). Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGam…

Show us how you handle non-physical damage! Phil and Senda talk emotional conditions from Masks specifically and non-physical damage, how to use it in games that already have it and how to implement it in games that don’t have it. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitte…

Show us how you deal with the death of a character in game — emotionally and logically! Senda and Phil talk fall out from various types of character death and how it comes about. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http://forums.misdirecte…

Show us how you manage safety breaks in your game. Phil and Senda talk about how to deal with safety breaks even when everyone at the table is acting in good faith and things still go sideways. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http://fo…

Show us how you manage the emotional fall out of dropped games — especially when they stack up! Phil and Senda talk ideas for dealing with the mechanical why of games being dropped and thoughts on dealing with the emotional drop of a cancelled game (especially last minute). Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patr…

Show us how you use camera shots in your game — and when you show your players things from a camera angle their characters can’t see! Senda and Phil talk camera angles, descriptions, teasers, and other “off camera” work. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @Pandas…

Show us how you take inspiration from actual plays — without getting disappointed or let down but real table play! Phil and Senda talk about how to take inspiration from actual play and why it should be just that –inspiration, not your aspiration or expected table play. We also talk about how to take the things that you like from that actual play m…

Today is a grab bag! We answer two quick questions: How to purge your physical TTRPG book collection and our current thoughts on conventions. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http://forums.misdirectedmark.com and panda(at)misdirectedmar…

Show us how you know if your game mechanics are a good fit — or how you make a graceful change if they’re not! Senda and Phil talk about how to tell if your game fits what you’re doing as well as some approaches for transitioning to a different system if you need to, or readjusting to fit to the game if that’s the preference. Bamboo Lounge for Patr…

Show us how you hit those beginnings hard and knock out those endings! Senda and Phil talk intros and outs, suggestions for how to make them impactful, and some tips on what to avoid. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http://forums.misdi…

Show us how you keep skill challenges interesting! Senda and Phil talk skill challenge challenges (see what I did there?), suggestions for when and how to use them, and some tips on what to avoid. Also, Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain. Why is he climbing the mountain? https://youtu.be/HU2ftCitvyQ Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find th…

Due to some *life stuff,* we had to record a quick chit chat! If you are listening for the first time, this is not our standard format, but it is the format that we use when life gets in the way of our standard style. This chit chat: what’s giving us life in gaming – Brindlewood Bay, Game group rearranging, and world building Bamboo Lounge for Patr…

Show us how you maximize your prep to game play time! Phil and Senda talk prep, prepping the most important stuff, and pacing the game to fill the time you want it to. Book resources (also available on Amazon): Never Unprepared: The Complete Gamemaster’s Guide to Session Prep – https://enginepublishing.com/never-unprepared-the-complete-game-masters…

Show us how you de-role after you play! Phil and Send chat about de-roling for sessions and campaigns, with things you may wish to consider and tips on potential ways to de-role. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames Forums: http://forums.misdirecte…

It’s episode 300, and we’re talking about epilogues! Show us how and when you use an epilogue! Senda and Phil talk the when, who, and how of epilogues, and a little bit about being 300 episodes into a podcast. Bamboo Lounge for Patreon backers today! Find these and more at http://patreon.com/mmp. Find us on the internet: Twitter: @PandasTalkGames F…

Show us how you manage sharing playing NPCs at your table! Phil and Senda talk about how to draw boundaries when there’s spillage between NPCs you want/don’t mind sharing with your player and NPCs you need to control. Apologies for the late show — the hotel wifi was a challenge in trying to get the audio uploaded! We will be back on schedule again …